What To Do When You’ve Hit A Plateau

You’ve been sticking to your workout routine, eating well and you’re getting closer to reaching your goals. Then all of a sudden it seems like what worked, in the beginning, has no effect on your anymore and you’re feeling stuck 😱 Cue.. The weight loss plateau. 

Let’s just first just acknowledge that plateaus aren’t inherently “bad”. They’re sometimes unavoidable and can still happen despite continuously eating carefully and regularly exercising. I like to see it as as more of a reflection of what I am or maybe not doing and pivot the direction I am moving in, or better, readjust my current habits. You see, the body likes to adapt to what we are doing so we need to shake things up every so often.

The thing is, when a person reaches a weight loss plateau, they will no longer lose anymore weight, despite any fitness or dietary actions taken. This can be for a multitude of reasons. The body can adapt to weight loss methods, people stop carefully following their diet plan or metabolic adaptations. 

Now before I tell you my tips to overcoming a plateau, I just want to clarify one thing. Not seeing results for say 5 days, a week even IS NOT a plateau! If you haven’t seen change in a period of at least 4-6 weeks and you know you are moving your body regularly and eating relatively well then I would consider this a plateau. 

So now for the bit you’ve all been waiting for. These are my top tips to keep the weight loss curve moving in the right direction. You can even use them before even reaching a plateau by continuously listening to your body and ensuring you are still making wins.

1. Reassess habits – make sure you are not mindlessly eating or overeating,
2. Reassess caloric intake – check in, especially if you are not tracking your calories that you aren’t eating hidden calories and don’t even realise or your portion size are correct  
3. Increase the amount of activity you are doing in your day – be NEAT and add in additional, incidental movement into your day 

So, the best ways to do this? 

Ask yourself these few simple questions that will reignite and continue fuelling your weight loss fire… 

• Can you increase your strength training?
• Can you add 10 minutes onto your workout or increase your workout intensity?
• Can you do an extra 1000 steps per day or increase your step goal? 
• Can you increase your incidental movement?
• Can you swap the calories in soda to a diet soda?
• Are there ways you can become more mindful of your stress levels? 

Once you have assessed what feels reasonable for you to do, write out 1-3 changes that you will make in a 14 day period and see if that helps to get the ball rolling again and break through the plateau.

A big key to the door of success… Consistency!

Are you eating really well on the weekdays, but then bingeing on weekends? Are you sticking to your workout plans? Ensuring you’re not just relying on planned workouts but also increasing your step count wherever possible?

To kick back into gear, things like implementing a diet diary, scheduling your workouts and meals like an appointment and monitoring sleep and stress levels might be useful to stay on track! 

Don’t let this pull you into reverse and send you back into old habits or ways of eating that may not be as conducive to your weight loss or health. It is OK and in fact so normal to feel frustrated when a plateau hits and this sometimes results in abandoning the weight loss plan.

Don’t get defeated by a stall of the scales or forget how far you’ve come both in your weight loss and creating healthier, life long habits to live a thriving life! 

Keep celebrating the wins and focus on the good you are doing for yourself and your health. Lacking motivation? Check out my latest post on how to find and maintain motivation.